Vigilante X
by Glaivester
Summary: The Timebroker is at it again...
1. Meeting

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Vigilante X

Summary: The Exiles and Weapon X aren't the only two reality-hoppers out there...

Disclaimer: The universes and the characters these are based on all belong to Marvel.

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Chapter 1 Meeting

Time: Never

Place: Over the Rainbow

A blackness filled the sky over a wheat field.

"Ooof!" spoke Tyrone Johnson, as he fell to the ground. "What the hell? I was just about to kick the butt of that bank robber...

"Where am I?" asked a voice behind him. "Cloak? Is that you?" Tyrone turned to see an enormous woman staring back at him. "How did we get here?"

"Who the Hell are you?"

"Cloak? You don't recognize me? I became your girlfriend after Tandy died-"

"Tandy's still alive. And who the Hell are you?"

"Katherine Marko."

"Never heard of you."

"You've never heard of the Juggernaut? Come on!"

"Excuse me, but would someone tell me what is going on here?" came a third voice. Katherine and Tyrone turned to see a man in a stylish old-fashioned jacket, with long pink hair. "I'm so upset, I could scream!" he smirked.

"Ruckus? Is that you?" asked Tyrone.

"Yes. And I suppose that this is your doing?"

"Why? Why would I..."

"Because you knew I was about to uncover your little criminal empire. The one you took over from the Kingpin!"

A big black blotch appeared in the sky and a man fell out. The entire left side of his body other than his face was obviously cybernetic.

"Who are you?" asked Katherine.

The man looked around. "The name's Creed. Graydon Creed. But some of you must already know that, you've met me!"

"You bigot!" roared Ruckus.

"I'm not a bigot, just a vigilante!" shot back Creed.

BAMF! A puff of smoke announced the arrival of another member. This one was a woman, Caucasian, with blue hair that had a white stripe in the center. She wore sunglasses, and a tight leather uniform overlaid with a vest. 

Snikt! Claws came out of her hands.

"What the Hell happened here?" she raised a fist at Ruckus.

"I'm as confused as anyone. Who are you?"

The woman looked around, and sighed. "The name is Mongrel."

"What are you?" asked Katherine.

"I am a normal human who has been experimented on."

"And I," said a sixth voice, "am wondering what the Hell is going on here?"

The final member of the party was a blue-skinned woman with hands that consisted of two pairs of opposable fingers. A red glow burned in her eyes. 

"The name is Rubique."

Suddenly a strange figure rose up from the ground, amidst the six, who immediately realized that they were standing in a circle. The figure looked like a pudgy man with sideburns, but his eyes were strangely all black, with no visible iris or sclera.

"I am the Timebroker. I brought you here. I'm trying to help you. Events have conspired that could be cataclysmic. And your entire universes depend on doing what I say."


	2. The Mission

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Chapter 2 The Mission

Disclaimer: The universes and the characters these are based on all belong to Marvel.

"Well," said the Timebroker. "Introductions first or the mission. Eeny, meeny, miney, mo... You're the leader, Ruckus. For now. After a while, you can change, make whatever decisions you want."

"How about the mission?"

"Okey-dokey. Long story short, you're from different realities. Different universes. Time, for a number of reasons, has gotten messed up, and the entire multiverse is in chaos. If we don't fix things as best as we can, the resulting chain reaction may destroy entire universes. Other universes will be made into living hells. Still others will suffer minor but unpleasant consequences. The further this chain reaction proceeds, the worse things will get."

The Timebroker walked over to a candy counter that had just appeared. "Candy, anyone?"

"Sure," said Creed. He helped himself to a large assortment of chewy candies.

"Some of these threads are at least partially correctable. And certain people are nexi... or nexuses, if you will. They have the special ability to correct the specific changes in other timelines... although not their own, and thus to save significant portions of the multiverse from destruction or devastation."

"That is us?" asked Ruckus.

"Exactly. And, as a result, you have been taken out of your times to help fix things. It's an automatic response, you understand, and I am just a figment of your imaginations - your collective imaginations - come here to explain what you already know. I am not real, this place isn't real, this candy, tasty as it may be, is not real," he pointed at Creed, "and you have to understand, there is no intelligence behind this. God has set the multiverse on autopilot, if you will, and this is all as basic as the laws of nature!"

"So we are supposed to set timelines right?" asked Ruckus.

"Not entirely. It would be impossible to set things along their original path, but you can set them back close enough to minimize the damage, and in so doing, get your own realities back."

"What do you mean?" asked Tyrone.

The Timebroker smiled. "Now, for introductions!"

"Tyrone Johnson. Energy vampire and teleporter. The dark entity known as Cloak." A book magically appeared and showed the young Tyrone Johnson. "Experimented on and turned into a black void along with his fiancee, Tandy Bowen, on what was supposed to be their wedding night. She, of course, became a creature of light. Together they fight vigilante missions against all who prey on others, particularly against the military junta of Canada, which has decimated the population of the Great Lakes region of the U.S. While trying to keep order, they also fight to maintain freedom and to prevent their own government from imposing martial law and destroying the United States in the process."

As the Timebroker spoke, the images kept changing. Now the page turned, and a completely new set of images appeared.

"Katherine 'Kat' Marko. After her half-sister Charlene Xavier began to rally the mutants of the world to destroy the wild-type humans (A/N wild-type = non-mutant), she sought help from the president of Egypt, Amahl Farouk, in finding the ancient Oracle En Sabah Nur, the only one said to know the location of the Gem of Cyttorak. Finding it, she absorbed its power and became the Juggernaut, but En Sabah Nur paid for the help with his life, taken by her sister.

"Her entire life, Kat has sought to reconcile wild-types and mutants, being somewhat outside the categories of either. Along the way, she has lost many lovers, and been heartbroken to discover the curse of Cyttorak - sterility. Nonetheless, along with Fred Dukes, St. John Allerdyce, Scott Summers, and Logan, she has won many fights against Professor. X, and her realm is slowly becoming tolerant of mutants."

The page turned again.

"On most universes, Magneto and Professor X are enemies, with one or the other fighting to destroy wild-types. On the world that Ruckus inhabits, both are united in a quest to destroy not just humans, but any mutant unworthy of life and advancement in their eyes. Led by Apocalypse, both Charles Xavier and Erica Lensherr were well on their way to destroying the last bastion of humanity, Africa, when one of Apocalypse's old henchmen, Nathaniel Essex, intervened. Along with his marauders, his team of "Nasty Boys" managed to push him back and to retake Europe and Asia. The few humans who remained in concentration camps were freed. One of them, Wilson Fisk, began trying to vie for power in the post-Apocalyptic world, but Ruckus and Gorgeous George managed to kill him before he gave Europe back to Apocalypse."

"And Cloak took his place!" grumbled Ruckus.

"Not this Cloak," said the Timebroker.

The page turned again. "Anyhow, in Graydon Creed's world, the Nazis have taken over all of Europe and Africa. Hitler was assassinated soon after, and his second-in-command, a Johann Schmidt, took over the Nazi Empire.

"Fleeing the Red Skull's persecution for their political views, Victor Creed and Raven Darkholme managed to make it to America, and there she gave birth to Graydon.

"Graydon was born with a muscle-wasting disease, and in a last-ditch attempt to save him, Tony Stark gave him a cybernetic body that replaced much of his musculature and which helped to heal the rest. Today he fights to protect Asia and the rest of the world from the menace of the Red Skull, using the enhanced strength and magnetic capabilities his cybernetic half affords him.

"But the one group the Nazis does not persecute are mutants - as long as they tow the line. And Graydon must face the Red Skull's right-hand mutant on many occasions - his own half-brother, Kurt Schmidt, the Red Skull's adoptive son and his own half-brother."

The page turned again. "Jessica Maldebank was a normal human living in a relatively peaceful world. That is, until Mr. Sinister captured her and used genetic manipulation to give her the combined powers of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, and Havok. She was mind-controlled for several years and spent the time preparing to create an evolutionary cataclysm, until rescued by Spider-Man, whom she took as a lover, and who helped her to find and take out Mr. Sinister once and for all."

The Timebroker looked at the last member of the team.

"Raven Darkholme II, also known as Rubique, comes from a dark world where mutants and wild-types are at all-out war. With the Earth's population down to half a billion, she has fought both sides and wants to produce peace for all peoples. She was conceived when her mother, Raven Darkholme I, was raped by Scott Summers in retaliation for her sympathizing with wild-types. Her mother killed herself when Raven II was four, and now she lives to avenge her mother on her father as well as to gain peace for the world as a whole."

The Timebroker looked at them all. "There you have it. All of you are willing to bend the rules, to do what you think is right. The universes you will be sent to are those that no one know how to deal with. Ones that you can't get specific instruction on. Not like the other groups."

"Other groups?" asked Creed.

"Never mine. I never said anything." The Timebroker looked at them all.

"You will sent to set things right in other universes. Succeed in enough universes, and you will be sent back to your timelines, which will be more or less like you left them. Fail, and you will also be sent back, but they will be vastly changed. Except for Rubique."

"Why not me?" asked Rubique.

"Let me explain. In the altered timelines," said the Timebroker, "Cloak, Canada takes over half of the US, and the other half is turned into a police state. Eventually, one hundred million people die. Kat, you never become the Juggernaut and all of humanity- wild-type and mutant - are destroyed. Ruckus, Dr. Essex is destroyed early on and Apocalypse takes over the world. Creed, the Nazis take over the entire eastern hemisphere and you lose your parents to your half-brother Kurt. Mongrel, Spider-Man dies and you never leave Sinister's grasp. Rubique, your reality collapses on itself and its entire existence will be erased. Fail, and these altered realities await you."

"And if we die? And if we fix some universes, will our realities be put partially right?" asked Ruckus.

"So many questions and so few answers!" said the Timebroker. "Oompa-loompa, it's time to go!"

Blackness filled the field, and they disappeared.


	3. Tallus

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Chapter 3 Tallus

Disclaimer: The universes and the characters these are based on all belong to Marvel.

Ruckus looked at the rest of the group. "Where the Hell are we now?"

Where indeed? They appeared to be in some burned-out radioactive rubble, like something from _Terminator_, after Judgment Day.

"Great. So if I fail, then I die - no, I disappear!" shouted Rubique.

"What the Hell?" Ruckus looked at his arm. There was a large shield-like device on his forearm.

"I am the Tallus. In this universe, mankind will destroy itself in war. Bring peace."

"How?" asked Ruckus. No answer.

"How what?" asked Kat.

"How do I bring peace? The Tallus told me we need to bring peace."

"I didn't hear anything!" said Cloak.

Everyone else except for Ruckus agreed that they didn't hear anything.

"Well, this piece of jewelry here talks to me, and apparently to no one else," lamented Ruckus. "I suppose we need some way to know what our mission is."

Suddenly a tall silver man riding a surfboard appeared from the sky and skidded over to the three people.

"Who are you and how did you breach the perimeter of the Northeast US? Galactus has put a shield over it to protect us from the European faction."

"Uh - let's just say that we're not from around here, we mean you no harm, and please explain to us what has gone on in the past, I don't know, fifty years or so," said Ruckus.

It turned out that this universe had had a very strange history. In it, the Dark Phoenix had managed to take over and to devastate over a billion galaxies before being brought to an end by Galactus, who, with the help of every major race in the universe, had absorbed her life force and dispelled it. This absorption also allowed him to become self-sustaining, and his goal was now to protect life rather than to consume it, particularly the planet Earth, from where the human possessed by the Phoenix had come.

Unfortunately, the Phoenix had plunged this entire universe into war, and many races were self-exterminating. Earth was not an exception. A four-sided war had apparently broken out between the American faction, the European faction, the Mid-East African faction, and the Asian faction. Each of these was a conglomeration of allied countries. The American faction consisted of the Americas, both North and South, the European faction consisted of Europe, Russia, and the Mediterranean African countries, the Mid-East African Alliance consisted of the rest of Africa and the Middle east all the way to Central Asian countries (the 'Stans), and the Asian faction consisted of India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia plus some of the Indonesian countries. Apparently Australia had managed to stay neutral.

Originally, Galactus had sided with the American faction, and had shielded them from harm, until they had begun to move too aggressively against the other factions and it became clear that they would use this advantage to wipe them out. Slowly Galactus had allowed more and more of the western hemisphere to become vulnerable, until now he was only protecting Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and New England. He was threatening to remove even that protection unless the people in charge were willing to negotiate rather than attempt to conquer the other factions, but President Doom of the USA, Premier Logan of Canada, President Castro of Cuba, and King Roberto of Brazil, the major powers of the American Alliance, said that they could win without his help if necessary.

The Silver Surfer took the team to Mt. Katahdin in Maine, where Galactus had made his home, after Ruckus had explained that they wanted to help bring peace.

It was strange, very strange, seeing Galactus, a being whom many people had assumed to be a god, sitting on a large throne in a cave in Mt. Katahdin, nursing what appeared to be a headache.

"What do you want, Norrin?" he asked the Silver Surfer.

"I have some guests."

"Yes?"

"Hello, Galactus," said Ruckus. We are a team of people from... somewhere else. Our goal is to make certain that the people of Earth do not wipe themselves out."

Galactus looked at them and laughed. This, he reasoned, was not going to be an easy task for them. Not an easy task at all.


End file.
